A crankshaft of a combustion engine, for example, is supported in the engine housing by means of main crankshaft bearings, which are generally sliding bearings. That is, the number of shaft sections by which the crankshaft is supported in the housing has a corresponding number of sliding bearing surfaces in the housing.
It is also known to support the crankshaft in the engine housing by means of rolling element bearings, such as deep groove ball bearings or cylindrical roller bearings.
The advantage of using roller bearings instead of sliding bearings for supporting the crankshaft in the engine housing is that the friction during rotation of the crankshaft can be reduced. On the other hand, the application of rolling element bearings can be detrimental, since misalignment of the bearing arrangement and/or offsets in the shaft sections of the crankshaft due to the crankshaft loading can lead to a significant reduction in bearing life.
Furthermore, when roller bearings are used as main crankshaft bearings, they are prone to noise and vibrations. Due to the geometry of a crankshaft, the bearings have an outer ring consisting of two ring halves, which are split radially. In practice, there is always some radial mismatch at the interface between the two halves, leading to noise and vibration when the interface is over-rolled.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to propose a bearing solution for a crankshaft assembly, which has a low friction, which places less strict requirements on correct alignment of a single bearing location relatively to another and which minimizes the generation of noise and vibration. As a result, a long bearing life can be achieved.